The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to view and navigate content on a display. For example, a user can view and navigate content in a web browser application on the device. The web browser application typically includes one or more areas adjacent to the web page content that display application information, such as a status/input bar/field.
Application status bars serve useful functions, such as accepting input and displaying information about the application content being viewed. But these bars can take up valuable screen space, leaving less space for the content that the user wants to view. Particularly on portable devices, on which screen space is at a premium, status bars that take up too much screen space can degrade the user experience.